The proposed research examines the measurement, parental choices, and developmental consequences of child care arrangements. The research uses a variety of large, extant, national data sources to assess the comparability of alternative child care measurement strategies, and to explore the characteristics of families and children who use different types of child care arrangements. Guided by the life course theoretical framework, we explicitly examine selectivities that affect choice among nonparental care alternatives; and then use statistical models that incorporate such selectivities in examining the consequences of alternative care arrangements.